Huddersfield GC’s Wrightson leads England to silver medal in Lithuania

ENGLAND’S senior women, captained by Huddersfield GC’s Pat Wrightson, went agonisingly close to retaining their European title before losing a close-fought final 3-2 to France at the National Golf Resort, Lithuania.

By Chris Stratford

Published 6th Sep 2015, 01:43 BST

England's senior women's team who placed second in the European Championships in Lithuania.

And the men’s senior team placed fifth by beating Switzerland 4-1 with the help of a singles victory from Stephen East, Yorkshire’s senior champion from Moortown GC.

In the women’s final, England fought back to take two matches to extra holes only to fall at the 19th on each occasion and they had to settle for the silver medal.

“The team played their hearts out,” said captain Wrightson, “England could not have more closely defended the trophy.”

England had qualified for the match play in fourth place and defeated Spain in the quarter-finals before knocking out top seeds Germany in the semi-final.

In the play-off for the bronze medal Ireland beat Germany 4-1.

The European senior men’s team championship was won by Ireland, who beat Italy 3-2. Scotland beat France 3-2 to win the bronze medal.